9X01 "The Magician's Apprentice" Grading/Discussion)

[Guy Gardener]

You say that like they call in Jo, Ian or Tegan sometimes when #### gets real and Clara's voicemail is full.

you know what would be awesome?

If they set an episode on the Wheel in Space during construction (when it was still earth Bound? they really should be complete built in orbit? Why am I thinking that the Wheel was originally the London Eye before some incident launched it into orbit by accident?) and then at the end of the episode a mother is calling to their 9 year old daughter Zoey to stop fussing and behave herself.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Um, River Song IS sexy...

Agree!

Agree more.

Oh hell..... "thud"

 

[Starkers]

Missy is sexy.

River is sexy.

And Kate Stewart is adorable!

 

[TommyR01D]

Let's not sell Clara short here, isn't she is a High School teacher.

Naw, I think middle school is appropriate. Her student Courtney is series 7 was 13. Making her middle school age. All the kids look about that age.

There is no "middle school" in England. Courtney was featured in Series 8, and I'm sure her age was 15. That would put her in Year 10 or 11, which would be the end of Secondary School (which is alternatively called High School).

The English system is

Infant School for ages 4 to 7
Junior School for ages 7 to 11
Secondary/High School for ages 11 to 16
Nowadays Infant and Junior schools tend to be merged into Primary Schools for ages 4 to 11.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The Gifted class from the one with the Forest in London, was spectacularly gifted.

They're 15 year old morons or relatively normal 9 year olds.

I am afraid for the streets of London that these microscopic simpletons are maybe a year away or less from learning how to drive.

 

[intrinsical]

Let's not sell Clara short here, isn't she is a High School teacher.

Naw, I think middle school is appropriate. Her student Courtney is series 7 was 13. Making her middle school age. All the kids look about that age.

There is no "middle school" in England. Courtney was featured in Series 8, and I'm sure her age was 15. That would put her in Year 10 or 11, which would be the end of Secondary School (which is alternatively called High School).

The English system is

Infant School for ages 4 to 7
Junior School for ages 7 to 11
Secondary/High School for ages 11 to 16
Nowadays Infant and Junior schools tend to be merged into Primary Schools for ages 4 to 11.

Over here, we are still using the classic British education system. So primariy school is from 6 to 12, while secondary school or high school is from 12 to 16. Under this system, Clara is most definitely a high school teacher.

 

[TommyR01D]

Naw, I think middle school is appropriate. Her student Courtney is series 7 was 13. Making her middle school age. All the kids look about that age.

There is no "middle school" in England. Courtney was featured in Series 8, and I'm sure her age was 15. That would put her in Year 10 or 11, which would be the end of Secondary School (which is alternatively called High School).

The English system is

Infant School for ages 4 to 7
Junior School for ages 7 to 11
Secondary/High School for ages 11 to 16
Nowadays Infant and Junior schools tend to be merged into Primary Schools for ages 4 to 11.

Over here, we are still using the classic British education system. So primariy school is from 6 to 12, while secondary school or high school is from 12 to 16. Under this system, Clara is most definitely a high school teacher.

I remember through most of my childhood elder relatives struggling to understand what any school-related terms meant. The jargon seems to completely change every twenty years or so.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Alex is sexy but I'm not so sure about River. The only people I hear say "Sweetie" are the waitresses up at the diner.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Waitresses control the pie.

Anyone who stands between pie and I is either lovely or asking for it.

 

[Klaus]

^^That may well the the first thing I've ever read of yours that I 100% agree with...

 

[Worf2DS9]

Finally got to see this episode! (I don't have Space here in Canada anymore, so I haven't been able to watch any of the season.) But I've been so starved for new Who, I broke down and streamed the ep from Google Play.

It was enjoyable for the most part, though as others mentioned, I thought the "rock star Doctor" was silly and went on far too long. That said, I appreciated the non-annoying Clara and the nods to past Who, especially the classic era Daleks.

Also:

I was quite impressed with the make-up job done with Davros this time around. He looked really authentic and realistic, moreso than in The Stolen Earth/Journey's End.

I thought the make-up looked fantastic in the Series 4 episodes, a great update to the classic design. I was pleased it remained the same this time 'round, if appearing a little darker -- though it was a dark room he was in.

Bleach was terrific as Davros and was used well.

I'm so glad Moffat decided to bring Bleach back to the role again after so many years. His performance at the end of Series 4 was a highlight for me and I had no complaints this time either. His scenes with Capaldi were great! Looking forward to seeing how this all wraps up (whenever that may be)!

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Let's not sell Clara short here, isn't she is a High School teacher.

Naw, I think middle school is appropriate. Her student Courtney is series 7 was 13. Making her middle school age. All the kids look about that age.

There is no "middle school" in England. Courtney was featured in Series 8, and I'm sure her age was 15.

I concur. I was just rewatching "Kill the Moon" last night. The Doctor & Courtney have this exchange:
DOCTOR: "She's fine. What are you, 35?"
COURTNEY: "15."

Also, the signs in "The Day of the Doctor" & "The Caretaker" clearly identify it as "Coal Hill Secondary School." Secondary school would also make sense considering Susan's age (or at least the age that she was pretending to be) back in the 1960s.

But, admittedly, it is confusing since the kids in "In the Forest of the Night" were definitely a lot younger. Maybe Clara & Danny were just filling in for someone. Or maybe they teach a wide variety of ages. Or maybe they switched to teaching younger grades sometime between "The Caretaker" & "In the Forest of the Night."

 

[Starkers]

Secondary school's tend to take kids from 11 upwards so I'm guessing it was the earliest year who Danny and Clara were minding in the Forest of the Night, also in UK schools teachers tend to teach a specific subject to all age ranges, so Clara would have likely been teaching first years up to fifth formers English (no idea if Coal Hill has a sixth form) and Danny would have similarly taught maths to kids between 11-16.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Susan was 16, or assuming the identity of a 16 year old.

What did the kids look like in Remembrance?

 

[JoeZhang]

Its clearly a bog-standard secondary school - the pupils featured 'In the Forest of the Night' are year seven (so 11) students. As Starkers points out, secondary school teachers teach by specialism not by age and they also tend to have a form class who they look after.

So when I was a teacher, I taught from year seven to twelve (Twelve is post-compulsory education) and then had a form group who were a year seven class.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

What did the kids look like in Remembrance?

I'm trying to remember. I'm not sure if we ever saw any besides the little girl that was powering the Daleks' battle computer. And I'm not even sure if it was established that she went to that school. The school generally seemed deserted, IIRC.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Thank you.

 

[JoeZhang]

What did the kids look like in Remembrance?

I'm trying to remember. I'm not sure if we ever saw any besides the little girl that was powering the Daleks' battle computer. And I'm not even sure if it was established that she went to that school. The school generally seemed deserted, IIRC.

The first scene shows multiple children - all clearly secondary school kids - and some appear to be sixth-formers (so at least 16).